I find myself constantly saying “what’s that word that means this?” I’m having trouble focusing. Thinking of things that JUST happened. Wondering where I put my phone that I totally just had in my hand. “It’s just a lot going on at once,” I’m telling people around me. Or “my brain is mush…sorry”. I feel like my brain is turned sideways, trying to process everything that happened.

Short version:

Two weeks ago today, lightning hit our house.

Long version:

Two weeks ago, I was having an internal debate. Should I do my usual after work grocery errands today? Or, my husband brought up going to Sam’s together to do some afternoon bulk shopping since the weekend was over, and the crowds would be gone. I thought about the gym after work… The usual thoughts running through my head. It was all normal.

My husband and I decided since it was raining to just go home, and deal with the errands later. Afternoon summer showers are fairly usual around here, so it would clear up in a couple of hours. Then, it happened.

A loud boom. A white light flashing through the fireplace. Power went out.

Um…..first thought…what in the WORLD?

I stayed inside while Joey went outside, and saw our neighbors…. “Did you HEAR that?” “Did your house shake too?” “What happened?” Everyone was thinking the same thing…then we realized everyone had their lights on but us. We were the only ones without power. We got hit by lightning.

Then, my husband smelled smoke when he went back in the house.

Oh God.

We need to find this fire…we don’t see it outside. We don’t see it inside.

The attic.

In a huge crazy mess of frenzy (which I have trouble recalling exact events), long story short. There was a fire in the attic. A fire that could have gotten much much worse, since it was melting our gas line. We still have our house, no one was hurt and the fire was gone.

After things calmed down a bit, we were told by the fire department that we’re very lucky. Lucky, because the fire was melting away our gas line and it didn’t expose enough to become a “flame thrower” in our house. Lucky, because we just got home 20 minutes before the hit (we’d likely have no house or ::gulp:: Millie if we weren’t home to react immediately). Lucky, because my husband could have been badly hurt trying to extinguish this if the gas line was anymore burnt.

We’re lucky.

It’s been two weeks of random people in our house, insurance stuff, and just trying to make our house the same again. I’m sure it will be just fine, but for now, I’m out of it. On top of the lightning, we had a tragedy in our family this week.

When it rains, it pours.

I find myself completely turned sideways, unable to get a grasp on things. My emotions are out of control, and I’m struggling to see the positive in anything right now. It’s hard, and I know you’re supposed to come out of these things stronger, but I really just want to fast forward a year and just know everything will get better.

I’m sure this blog post makes no sense, but I felt like I just needed to write. It has been such a trying past couple of weeks, so that’s why this blog has been pretty quiet. Hopefully, things return to normal soon, but for now, we’re just taking things one day at a time.

One valuable thing I learned from all of this is if a fire happens in your house, don’t constantly question things…GET OUT. Get everyone out of that house as quickly as possible. No matter how small a fire may appear when you find it, you have no idea how quickly things could escalate.

Hope y’all had a great 4th of July! We ended up having an easy-going day, which was definitely welcome. It was probably the most difficult on Millie, since she got her summer fur-cut yesterday AND had to deal with 3 neighborhoods in our area FULL of fireworks lovers. Poor gal.

3. This is completely awesome. Completely…maybe I should do this to my sisters when they get married? I’m pretty sure my husband wouldn’t claim me anymore. On another note, I want those shoes she’s wearing. What are those? Sparkly Converse shoes?

4. I was looking through old iPhone pictures yesterday, and came across my Couch to 5K collages. I found one from the 4th of July last year, and decided to see how it compares to one from my last run. I’m hoping y’all aren’t getting tired of the progress picture comparisons…they motivate the heck out of me to see a huge difference in my face like that!

5. This made me ridiculously happy. My career is in the IT & science fields, and as a woman, I’m definitely in the minority. I have no problem working with men (just sayin’), but it’s something I notice a lot at conferences and in training classes. If I have a daughter one day, I’d love for her to have toys like this! I used to LOVE playing with my brother’s toys as a kid (sorry bro), and was a huge sucker for science kits/books/games. I hope this toy idea sticks around for a while!